Story+1988-05-09+Minneapolis,+MN

“Ready for a ride? (crowd cheers)…”
 * 09.05.88 Bloomington, MN, intro to “Tunnel of Love”**

“So is it springtime here in Minnesota yet or what? (crowd cheers) yeah…I don’t know, kind of windy and rainy out there today…when you get them days that are about 65 and the air’s real clear…you know, no humidity…in New Jersey you get a lot of humidity in the summertime…but when you get them spring days like this time of year back east, man, everybody comes outside, takes off their jackets (crowd cheers) you know…yeah…girls leave all their winter clothes home…do it, girls! (crowd cheers)…that’s when I like to take a walk in the park and see, uh, if any of my old friends are around, you know…Yo! Hey, man! Hey, how you doing? alright (crowd cheers) yeah…good to see you, what’ve you been up to?...yeah, I haven’t seen you much lately, man, you must’ve been busy, you don’t ever call me or anything any more…what you got? oh, I see, oh, oh, I got you…we got baby pictures of the Little Big Man here (crowd cheers) he looks good, he’s, uh, three, three years old…he’s got his own apartment, his own car already (crowd cheers) he’s got a little saxophone (crowd cheers) a suit…almost as handsome as his dad (chuckles)…he looks good, that’s fine…man, man, I remember I was with you the night you met your wife…like, Clarence every time we’d be on the road, you know, he was always knocking at my door, “Bruce, I’m in love, I’m in love” (crowd cheers) so I was like his Dr. Ruth, you know, or something, I don’t know…”Yeah, yeah, yeah,” “No, I’m in love and I met the girl I’m gonna marry” “Yeah, yeah, yeah”…and then…then that night we were overseas, she comes walking in and Clarence goes running into the bathroom, you know, to fix himself all up and he had this like, uh, patchouli oil or something he used to put on all the time (laughs) like, oh, he’d go and then he comes back out and I’m watching him, you know, and I’m standing like by him to see what he’s saying to this girl and he’s acting like a whole lot nicer than he really is, you know (crowd cheers) it’s like, it’s like (chuckles) that worked, it worked, it was good, you know, you did good (chuckles) anyway…and I was your best man too (crowd cheers) back in New Jersey when that girl comes walking into the room and she’s looking so good, it feels kind of like this…do it up, Ritchie, this time around, man…oh yeah (the horn section starts harmonizing)…so you wanna go out tonight or what?...you know, we’ll go out to the bars, stay out till four, five A.M like we used to – what do you think?...you gotta go home? you gotta…I got the picture…me too…see you later…alright…still carrying that thing around, huh? alright (chuckles)…”
 * 09.05.88 Bloomington, MN, intro to “All That Heaven Will Allow”**

“How you doing out there tonight? Alright? (crowd cheers) that’s good…how you guys in the backseat, huh? (crowd cheers)…there was, uh, this fellow and this girl and they met, they met in a bar down along the Coast on a Friday night…and he was a house painter, he was kind of young and a little on the reckless side, you know, wasn’t saving any money, was just making it and spending it, having a good time…and she was a little bit older and she was kind of out looking for, uh, someone to love her, I guess…and they met and there was a lot of things about him that she liked, she used to say that he was real…real sweet-tempered kind of guy, real sort of gentle, always, always telling jokes, laughing a lot…and they fell in love and they moved into a little garage apartment about two blocks in off the beach in the wintertime…and things went real good – she got pregnant and they were making plans to be married…he saved his money for the first time and went down and, and bought her a ring and she picked out a dress…and then, uh, then something happened, I guess maybe he was a little, maybe he was a little too young but he got scared and he took off…but she never really let him go…she kept him in her mind…and she kept him in her heart every day…and she thought about him at night when she climbed into bed…it was like an old dream that the world just took and broke her heart with over and over again every day because he wasn’t ever coming back…and there comes a time when you gotta take the past and you gotta put it away (crowd cheers) so this is a song about a woman struggling to understand the value of her own individual existence (crowd cheers) and the value of the life of her child…trying to take that past and those old dreams and put them where they belong and trying to find something new and beautiful and meaningful in her life now (crowd cheers)…”
 * 09.05.88 Bloomington, MN, intro to “Spare Parts”**

“Thanks…don’t tire yourself out because this is only half-time (crowd cheers) we’re gonna take a short break and we’ll be back in a little while to get you, alright? (crowd cheers)…”
 * 09.05.88 Bloomington, MN, after “Born in the U.S.A”**

“This is a song about, uh, that great American pastime…no, not that one…I’m talking about shopping…oh yes, you got that Home Shopping Network out here? (some cheers) no? you know, on TV where they toot that horn every time somebody buys something that was, uh, 69.95, it’s now down to 39.95, you can get it for 19.95 if you send in right now, I’m gonna send you a free set of steak knives (crowd cheers) that you can stab your loving hubby with…”
 * 09.05.88 Bloomington, MN, intro to “You Can Look”**

“Let me correct myself…is my hair alright? (crowd cheers) hair’s alright…is there anybody alive out there tonight? (crowd cheers) is there anybody that can feel the living, breathing spirit in them out there tonight? (crowd cheers) that’s good because...I want to know ...do we have any rough, tough St. Paul or Minneapolis men in the audience tonight? (crowd cheers) do we have any macho men out there tonight? (crowd cheers) alright, we’ve got some…because I've known men that would swim rivers...they climbed mountains ...they wrestled with the beasts of the jungle...but there was one thing that they was afraid of...and I’m gonna tell you what that one thing was...they were scared to death of L-U-V, I'm talking about love...love scared them to death...am I talking about you? am I talking about you?...when they got next to love, they ran home to their mommies...now, do we have any brave, heroic, courageous Minnesota women out there tonight? (crowd cheers) do we have any sweet, sexy, liberated, Minneapolis girls out there tonight? (crowd cheers) because, girls, I’m talking to you too...that’s right, the same goes for you…I’ve known women that when they got next to love, when they felt love in their hearts, when they found that man that wanted to love ‘em...what did they do: they ran away... that’s right…they ran back home to their mommies…now I’m not down here to point the finger because I’ve got a confession of my own I’ve got to make...and what I wanna say is I have sinned!... and I don’t need no Jim Baker, no Pat Robertson, no Jimmy Swaggert to forgive me (crowd cheers) them boys can kiss my ass, baby (crowd cheers) and that Jerry Falwell, he can kiss my ass twice (crowd cheers) both cheeks...’cause I ain’t afraid of no man-made things...but what I’ve got to testify to is...that I’m a coward ...when it comes to love...”
 * 09.05.88 Bloomington, MN, intro to “I’m a Coward”**

“Well, now, there’s those that believe we, uh, came from Adam and Eve…then there’s those that, uh…well, let me, let me tell you this story…(?)…”
 * 09.05.88 Bloomington, MN, intro to “Part Man, Part Monkey”**

“Oh, that’s right now…are you ready for a little dancing? (crowd cheers) get up, get up, get up… (…) Sometimes I feel…I get feeling so lonely…and all I see is rain… (?) through those sunny skies…and I can’t hide the tears in my eyes…that’s when I wanna reach out because I need a little help from somebody…and I just wanna say “Hey, come on, baby…and dance my blues away”…”
 * 09.05.88 Bloomington, MN, intro to “Dancing in the Dark”**

“On the piano, Professor Roy Bittan (crowd cheers) on the drums the Mighty Max Weinberg (crowd cheers) on the guitar and vocals, Miss Patti Scialfa (crowd cheers) on the guitar, the great Nils Lofgren (crowd cheers) on the bass, Garry W. Tallent (crowd cheers) on the organ, Phantom Dan Federici (crowd cheers) in the back we got Eddie “King” Fisher, Richie La Bamba, Mark “The Love Man,” Mike, Mario Cruz – the Horns of Love (crowd cheers) and last but not least, the handsomest man this town has ever seen (crowd cheers) the greatest man in the history of Western civilization (crowd cheers) Clarence “Big Man” Clemons on the saxophone (crowd cheers)…”
 * 09.05.88 Bloomington, MN, middle of “Light of Day”**

“This is, uh…this is a song I wrote, I guess about 15 years ago now (crowd cheers) I was 24 years old…it was in the afternoon, I remember sitting on the end of my bed in Long Branch, New Jersey …and uh…I had a couple of records out…I was living in a little house about a block in off the beach…and uh…I guess this song, if somebody said “Well, you gotta pick one that people can hear”… that if they wanted to know, I guess…what did I do while I was taking up some space down here (chuckles)…I guess I’d pick this song…’cause when I wrote it, even though I was young, it seems like I asked myself questions that I’ve been chasing after the answers to ever since…in every record and in every song that I wrote after this song, I seem to be trying to get closer and closer… to the answers…I don’t know if there are any but uh…when I wrote this, I thought I was writing about a guy and a girl who wanted to get into a car and run and keep on running (crowd cheers) everybody wants to do that…it was a nice romantic idea…but it just, uh…it doesn’t really work…as I got older, I realised that I’d put all those people in all those cars and I was gonna have to figure someplace for ‘em to go (crowd cheers) so, uh, through the years I guess I realised as I sang this song that they were out there looking for, looking for a connection, connection with the world around them, trying to stay alive and fight on…and trying to find someplace that they might be able to call “home”…and then I realised that home really isn’t waiting out there over the next hill but that it’s buried deep inside of me somewhere…and uh…I guess if you’ve got the guts…and you’re lucky, you get a little piece of it and you hold on to a little piece of it (crowd cheers) anyway, this song’s kept me good company on my search, I hope it’s kept you good company on yours (crowd cheers) I’d like to, uh, sing it for you, dedicate it to you, wishing you home and happiness (crowd cheers)…”
 * 09.05.88 Bloomington, MN, intro to “Born to Run”**

“Alright, a little travelling music…”
 * 09.05.88 Bloomington, MN, intro to “Hungry Heart”**

“Now, this is for all you old suckers out there (crowd cheers)…”
 * 09.05.88 Bloomington, MN, intro to “Glory Days”**

“We’re getting to the dangerous part of the show now (crowd cheers) what I wanna know is is everybody fully insured out there? (crowd cheers) in case of heart attacks from too much excitement? (crowd cheers) are you sure? (crowd cheers) are you sure? (crowd cheers) then you asked for it, baby…”
 * 09.05.88 Bloomington, MN, intro to “Rosalita”**

“We didn’t come all the way from New Jersey to stop now, baby (crowd cheers) get on those things, man, get back, get on that, give me that note, Bobby, here we go (intro music starts)…we came all the way from New Jersey (crowd cheers) thousands and thousands of miles…and we didn’t take no fancy rock star airplane either, baby (crowd cheers) we drove in three station wagons for three days and we ate nothing but, uh, uh…alright, man, we did take one of them fancy rock star airplanes (crowd cheers) but we thought about driving…because we got a mission to complete…does anybody out there tonight need a little love, do you need a little affection, do you need a little physical attention? (crowd cheers) ‘cause our motto is “Have love, will travel”…”
 * 09.05.88 Bloomington, MN, intro to “Have Love, Will Travel”**

“Are you ready for the “Tenth”? (crowd cheers) are you ready for the “Tenth”? (crowd cheers) are you ready for the “Tenth”? (crowd cheers)…”
 * 09.05.88 Bloomington, MN, intro to “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out”**

“I know what you’re thinking…you’re thinking I’m looking a little tired now, right? (crowd cheers) I know, I know it…but this is right where I get my second wind (crowd cheers) can you stand it, Minneapolis? (crowd cheers) can you stand it? (crowd cheers) can you stand it? (crowd cheers) then I got a question I wanna ask you …”
 * 09.05.88 Bloomington, MN, intro to “Sweet Soul Music”**

“Are you trying to tell me something? (crowd cheers) are you talking to me? (crowd cheers) I’ve been working my ass off for three hours, baby, you better talk louder than that! (crowd cheers) are you talking to me? (crowd cheers) are you talking to me? (crowd cheers) then are you ready for a little religious liberation? (crowd cheers) are you ready for a little spiritual affirmation? (crowd cheers) are you ready for some sexual consummation? (crowd cheers) then just raise your hand, baby… (…) Before I leave this stage tonight, there’s one thing I’ve got to know…is there something you need? (crowd cheers) is there something you want? (crowd cheers) is there something down deep in your heart that you’ve got to have? (crowd cheers) then just raise your hand…”
 * 09.05.88 Bloomington, MN, intro to “Raise Your Hand”**

“Thank you! We love you, you guys were incredible, alright (crowd cheers) really, thank you…I’m going home, baby (chuckles)…”
 * 09.05.88 Bloomington, MN, after “Raise Your Hand”**

//Compiled by Johanna Pirttijärvi//